Posted
by
CmdrTaco
on Monday April 20, 2009 @11:28AM
from the good-luck-man dept.

C S Miller writes "Not much more to add.
The BBC is reporting that 'Stephen Hawking is "very ill" in hospital.' He has had a few health scares before, and as a post-graduate he was told he didn't have much longer to live; he's now 67."

Stephen Hawking is one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. The guy has achieved more than almost anyone on the planet, and all that while being completely wheelchair bound and having a speech impediment. Most fully healthy and able-bodied people can't even remotely come close to his intellect and insights.
It'll be a shame if this turns out to be his last hospital visit, but if it is, he knows his name will be remembered for a long, long time to come.
Good luck, mr. Hawking. I do hope you pull through once again.

Stephen Hawking is one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. The guy has achieved more than almost anyone on the planet

Primarily seem to be a direct result, and inseparable from:

being completely wheelchair bound and having a speech impediment

It is disrespectful toward him, for people whom don't know anything about physics, to brown nose all over the guy, just because he's handicapped. Note, I'm not saying he's a loser, its not a binary this or that response. It is more respectful of his considerable intellectual achievements to describe him as definitely well above average in his profession, rather than a polite version of condescendingly fawning over every little little achievement of a sick child.

For example, in my opinion Asimov beats him in popular science writing, Feynman beats him in actual physics and also general writing. Not coming in first or second place doesn't make him a moron, it just makes him not first or second place. Just not the greatest mind of the century, just not the greatest achievement on the planet. Still cool mind you, just not the greatest.

He is fairly comparable to Edward Belbruno, the genius inventor of low energy orbital transfers, in that both broke new ground in a very specialized area of study where they got very surprising, paradigm changing results, and wrote reasonably decent books about it. Note, you've never heard of Belbruno because he physically normal, as far as I know.

It's more respectful to declare him a very significant figure in early black hole physics and a decent writer and stop at that point, than to focus on his handicap while worshiping his achievements in a pandering manner.

It is disrespectful toward him, for people whom don't know anything about physics, to brown nose all over the guy, just because he's handicapped. Note, I'm not saying he's a loser, its not a binary this or that response. It is more respectful of his considerable intellectual achievements to describe him as definitely well above average in his profession, rather than a polite version of condescendingly fawning over every little little achievement of a sick child.

I'm going to butt in here and point out that Hawking's achievements were beginning to be known even as a post-grad, when his illness was [i]first diagnosed[/i]. At this point he's been restricted to a wheelchair for most of his life, but he was more or less normal for his first 20 or so years, physically. He was even on the rowing team IIRC.

Now, I don't know if his illness increased his focus and productivity in the realms of theoretical physics or not, other than to note that if he'd been whole in body he'd have a far easier time outputting his ideas, researching, etc... Not to mention possibly having an extra 30 or so years of him. His lack of mobility has likely led to certain health issues that will take him from us early.

in the movie A Brief History of Time the argument is made that his disability forced him to construct new mental models to work through ideas, and that those new models enabled him to see things others hadn't. there's a reasonable case to be made that he's done as much brilliant work as he has because of, not in spite of, his physical impairment.

I lost my dad to ALS when I was 12. He was diagnosed when I was 8. 46 years with ALS is literally unprecedented. Most people don't make it to the 5th year after diagnosis. I hope he's willed his body to science because his final act of discovery might be to help medical science figure out how to slow the progression of the disease.

Oh yeah: if you want to do something in Dr. Hawking's honor, drop a few coins ALSA [alsa.org]'s way. The DNA of the foundation my mom started after my dad was diagnosed is a part of the curr

"Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the 'old one'. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice." - A. Einstein

Lets see, who would I rather listen to - a self-righteous imbecile who apparently feels the need to post anonymously, despite being so sure of themselves, or a man who was bound to a wheelchair most of his life, can't speak without the help of a computer and despite being told he only had a couple of years to live, managed to do more in a few years than 99.99% of other human beings on the planet have ever accomplished in their entire lives?A man that, when faced with quite possibly one of the worst things that could ever happen to single human being, didn't give up. I respect this man more than any other human being that has ever lived. Even without his genius, he is a role model for us all, he is living proof that no matter how bad things may seem, your life need never be over.

I know I'm not supposed to feed the trolls, but this is something I feel so strongly about, I had to say something. Stephen Hawking is a great man, easily one of the greatest people alive today.

Stephen Hawking is a major reason that I am alive today. When I was diagnosed in 2005, my first thought was "if Professor Hawking can do it so can I". It's the only ground where we are equal so I'm going for it (although I've pulled into a 12' barrel over a reef in Fiji and I don't think the Professor ever imagined doing that ).

I hate to link to another post of mine in another thread, but I think it's appropriate here. I very much DO believe in intangible, imaginary friends [slashdot.org], and frankly find myself MORE enlightened for trusting in my Gods to deliver me to the truth.

Some people call me wacko for that, but those people also invariably bask in the works my Gods have allowed to be through Their Divine Influence. Personally, I find it hypocritical, but not blasphemous. I would guess that blasphemy is hard to actually pull off in my

Sort of sounds like Plato's forms. Ideas and pure concepts are the most real things, physical instances are just crude copies.

Funnily enough, Plato's evidence for the forms is very similar to Anselm's attempt to prove God's existence. Perhaps because Anselm's version of God (at least for the purposes of his argument) basically resembled the mother of all Forms.

I doubt Plato considered the forms to be his friends though, being a grown man and all.

If your linking of self-reference and consciousness wasn't inspired by Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid [wikipedia.org] , then I'd advise you to read that book as soon as possible, as that's pretty much its main thesis.

I see God sitting down with Stephen, winking and then saying something like, "Hey, did you get what I did with that 10 dimension thing and how it really changes when you look at it in 11 dimensions. Trippy, right?"

I see God sitting down with Stephen, winking and then saying something like, "Hey, did you get what I did with that 10 dimension thing and how it really changes when you look at it in 11 dimensions. Trippy, right?"

Hawking: I also spotted your unintentional mistake which become clear when you look at in 12 dimensionsGod: You mother-fsckin' smartass

Though I'm no scientist like Newton or Hawking,or a great advancer of society like Gandhi or M.L. King,indeed, I'm a miserable failure when compared against the highest standards of humanity, and infinitely more so when judged against the perfect standards of God,

the Good News is that even I can receive all the greatest benefits of eternal life through grace, rather than the consignment to nothingness that I deserve by my own efforts.

I have seen many people who supposedly accepted JC and do not do terribly good works and those who haven't who are almost saintly.

The idea that the acceptance will make good works be done does not seem to bear out in practice.

My personal belief is that God, if he truly exists and is worthy of worship, has already forgiven all souls. We may gain a wider understanding of our actions after death and that understanding and our own lack of how we behaved is what will drag us down. In other words the "fires" of

Though I'm no scientist like Newton or Hawking,or a great advancer of society like Gandhi or M.L. King,indeed, I'm a miserable failure when compared against the highest standards of humanity, and infinitely more so when judged against the perfect standards of God,

the Good News is that even I can receive all the greatest benefits of eternal life through grace, rather than the consignment to nothingness that I deserve by my own efforts.

Thank you for demonstrating one of the great dangers of religion. It allow

lol if you believe that you have no concept of kindness, justice, or love. (if God is truly like that then I will go to hell before serving him, where at least I will maintain a shred of dignity). This is where so many christians get off....what kind of bizarre test is it where you just have to accept someone, who you may or may not have even heard of? It's not even accurate according to the bible, the only reason Christ wants you to accept him is so he can teach you to be happy and good. He doesn't act

I hope he pulls through too. Because if he dies he will do so without being having accepted his gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. God is not going to ask Stephen Hawking what his GPA was, or how many department chairs he has held, or how many papers he has published. No, there is only one question that Mr. Hawking will be asked... Did you believe upon my Son for the forgiveness of your sins?

ok.. Any intelligence which is that conceited, petty and needy has no buisness being worshipped. Actually such an intelligence wouldnt even have my respect.

I hope he pulls through too. Because if he dies he will do so without being having accepted his gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. God is not going to ask Stephen Hawking what his GPA was, or how many department chairs he has held, or how many papers he has published. No, there is only one question that Mr. Hawking will be asked... Did you believe upon my Son for the forgiveness of your sins?

I'll chime in on this, because as a Christian it kills me to see this pre-school level understanding of Christianity repeated.

To make it simple here's the basic axioms of Christianity:1. God is real and is perfect2. Anyone who wants to return to Him must be perfect3. Nobody is perfect (enter the paradox)4. Christ willingly takes upon Himself the imperfections (sins) of the world.5. Then as the creditor, He, and He alone, has the authority to redefine the terms of returning to God

The problem arises when Christians think they themselves are able to define the terms of returning to God, which when you think of it could be considered blasphemous at the highest level because one must arrogate themselves above Christ to think that they have the authority to do so.

This is done often by misinformed Christians when referring to atheists, non-believers, other Christian sects, and even people with whom they don't agree with within their own faith--and generally is indicative of a very immature understanding of the Christian faith. I've encountered this myself as I've heard people tell me whether I'm a Christian based on definitions varying from "anyone who follows Christ" to "anyone who goes to my Bible study group on Thursdays." It's a version of the "no true Scotsman" fallacy.

Continuing from #5 above:

6. A significant portion of God's children never heard of Christ or otherwise lacked the opportunity to accept Him by no fault of their own, and thus could not be condemned by a perfect God for reasons beyond their control (note that "opportunity" is defined loosely here since it is different for everyone)

Christians who stopped at #5 above and simply proceeded to try to define the terms of salvation on their own won't even get to this step since they're too busy trying to pretend they're qualified to judge those around them (which, by the way, is explicitly forbidden in Christianity).

There are several different ways different Christian sects try to solve the paradox contained in #6. Rather than dive too much deeper I'll just say that Christ Himself gave a clue to this in His parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew (go look it up). Summarizing, it basically teaches that those who concerned themselves with helping the homeless, poor, sick, widowed and otherwise less fortunate are those who He will allow back into God's presence regardless of any amount of lip service given.

So if, God forbid, Dr. Hawking dies now, will he be saved? I don't know, and I can firmly say that neither does anyone else on this planet. So, I'd say the best thing we can do is appreciate all the good he did and hope/pray we can enjoy his presence longer. And if not, take all of the good Dr. Hawking brought to the scientific community and mankind in general.

There's no paradox. 2 and 3 form a problem for mankind, which is rather different to a paradox - a problem that is solved by 4.

As for the terms of 5, they are very clearly defined by God in Scripture as being faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Additionally, the book of Romans is very clear that no-one is without excuse because God's existence is clear from nature, but denied by us because of our sinful nature, which goes against the problem you claim in 6. See Romans 10:9-17 for example - the problem of people

Why are you blaming God for what people do in his name? I've seen people do some pretty messed up stuff in the name of money. Does that make all money evil? Or maybe we should hold people responsible for their actions, not God, whether or not you believe in him.

Religion gives people power just like politics. Are you really so surprised that people at times abuse power? Get some perspective please before you start spewing hate like that. Oh, wait. This is slashdot. Never-mind. Carry On.

Watching some of Stephen Hawking's speeches is very interesting but takes over 3 times as long to understand what he is saying. He is that intelligent, when he dumbs it down its still hard to understand. My heart goes out to him and hopefully will get better.

Yeah, I understand that maybe some of this theories were disproved, but stimulating the smartest physicists around the world to prove his theories wrong is somewhat amazing thing. Many people tried to disprove "theories" but that's the wonderful thing about science, the right to prove someones work.

Back in the days of Aristotle, we knew that gravity was a constant downward force.

Newton's calculations didn't show that to be wrong, it merely proved that it's a good approximation if you're on the Earth's surface. If you're in space, you need to use Newton's work.

Einstein didn't disprove Newton, he merely showed that his calculations are a good approximation if you're traveling at less than 10% the speed of light. Higher than that, and you need to use Einstein's equations.

Hawking showed that Einstein's equations only worked in a limited scope, just like Einstein did to Newton. In the same way, Hawking's early work has been supplanted by more recent studies, but it doesn't mean the man is dumb.

Apart for all the people who get resuscitated after clinical death. Oh, the people who get accidentally misfiled as dead by bureaucrats and need to spend months to prove that they are alive, they don't count either. Anybody else with more than one death that you're missing?

He was given 2-3 years to live... at age 21 [wikipedia.org] due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

He contracted pneumonia in 1985 and would never speak naturally again as a result of the surgery to save his life.

When the odds are stacked against you, a "fantastic will to live" can seem pretty insignificant. I'm grateful we've had his presence for this long but these are the facts.

I'm not afraid to show Stephen Hawking we're shocked and mortified that we might lose him. I hope we don't but I'm not one to go through life with a "everything's going to be just fine" attitude masking my true feelings. I followed Robert Jordan's disease in mortified fear and I'll follow Stephen Hawking's progress in mortified fear. I would like him to know how much the world will miss him before it is too late.

I am grateful for all that he has done in stealing knowledge from the unknown and delivering it to mankind. I know my own personal state of understanding owes him a great deal.

I second those thoughts for both Robert Jordan and Stephen Hawking. R.J. was a brilliant craftsman of the English language; and I think he knew he would be missed; given that he wrote until his body could no longer function.
As for Hawking. He is the greatest mind of our time. He will truly be missed; but he will always be with us. Every innovation for the progression of mankind will be founded on the knowledge that he gave us. We will travel to the stars on the backs of his ideas.

Even if you discount his contribution to science, which is considerable he is pretty amazing.

As someone who has ALS, aka Lou Gehrig's Disease, aka motor neuron disease, run in the family (Gradfather died from it) and has read up on it a lot, it is remarkable that he is even alive, let alone a scientist of some repute.

By the time most are diagnosed they only live for a handful of years.

Anyway I hope he recovers from this and continues to lead such a productive life. Best wishes.

This man has been an inspiration to many people, myself included. He has inspired hope and shown the true courage and grit that humans can possess. Mr. Hawking has contributed man things to the fields of science and written some truly great books. His legacy will extend far beyond when he shuffles off this mortal coil.

I wish him the best and hope that the end to his current predicament comes swiftly, no matter the resolution.

Creationists always try to use the second law,to disprove evolution, but their theory has a flaw.The second law is quite precise about where it applies,only in a closed system must the entropy count rise.The earth's not a closed system' it's powered by the sun,so fuck the damn creationists, Doomsday get my gun!That, in a nutshell, is what entropy's about,you're now down with a discount.

I'm pretty sure that anyone who knows who Hawking is knows of his disease and what it has done to him. Hence we already know he isn't the most photogenic person on the planet. Couldn't you find a slightly better picture of him?

I had the pleasure of seeing one of his lectures. This was before the breathing tube and voice synth. Honestly couldn't understand a word he was saying. One of his undergrads would translate for him. Went something like this:

Hawking: "hmm um mumb bllum blbl lun udn ummm mummb lum mum".

SomeGuy: "And we should see a large burst of gamma radiation."

I had a less than elegant friend with me who leaned over to me and whispered: "Wouldn't it be funny if the guy in the wheel chair was just some retarded kid and the other guy was a genius who didn't want noterity?"

What is amazing is that despite coming up with the theoretical basis behind the big bang and a whole bunch of other stuff he is still yet to win the Nobel Prize. Hopefully this is just Professor Hawking's way of making a VERY big hint to the awards committee.

Yes I know its about theoretical pieces that must be proven by experimentation, but surely the big bang is worth it on its own.

Einstein got it for the photoelectric effect, and it was richly deserved. It was a property that could easily be observed and tested (unlike relativity, which was a lot harder to verify) and that couldn't be explained by classical physics but could be through quantum mechanics. Winning for PE wasn't a bad thing

What was bad was that he missed out on the other *4* he should have gotten

I fear his death would set us back decades. With the LHC going online his loss would potentially leave a a vaccume in the world of physics, astronomy, astrophysics, and mathmatics.

Black Holes research among other astronomical phenomena (high energy) could gain a wealth of information from the LHC's test results. Without him for those early few years guiding the new generation through the initial results, I fear they may flounder and miss important initial indicators on WHERE to look setting us back decades.

I can't help make a comparison between Hawking and Carl Sagan. Sagan was also a great popularizer of science in addition to being an accomplished scientist in his own right. Like Sagan, Hawking has serious health problems (although Hawking's are much more severe than Sagan's). Sagan only lived to 62 and his death was connected to lung problems. I do hope we aren't seeing the same pattern for death as well as life.

Isn't he still "a post-graduate"?
I think the sentence is referring to a period of several decades, not one ambiguously timed academic achievement. I think he did not become post-grad when he was 15 years old, so the error range is only a few years.

I can see how you could have misunderstood that on first glance, but it is obvious that Stephen Hawking is playing the role of "Very III" in the new movie "Hospital". "Very III" is a zany medbot with a heart of gold(literally, who knew that common gold would be the material needed to stabilize cold fusion?) and Hawking will be providing the voice work.

I think it's far more likely that Hawking found out that he was being connected to that vicious rape of a particularly good kids show (Isaac Asimov wrote for the show) and is dying from *that* embarrassment.
Someone, please stop Will Ferrell before it's too late!

Nothing wrong with being proven wrong in the field of SCIENCE. That's the whole point behind science and the scientific process. We've discovered many things because of Hawking, whether he was right about it to begin with or not.